Anyone else witness/experience...

...unusual or erratic driving behaviors lately? On two separate occasions within the last month, I've had people turning left across my lane, onto the road I was traveling (pulling onto the road, coming from the right hand side of the road and going the opposite direction). The peculiar part is that in both instances, visibility was high for a reasonable distance and I was traveling at or near the speed limit, yet both cars turned across my lane literally right in front of me. Both cases were so close, that I had to lock down the brakes and manuever to keep from hitting the other car. Another similarity was that both cars appeared to be <1 year old, smallish SUVs. For reference, I drive a 98 Ford Ranger. In my experience, when someone pulls out in front of you and you nearly hit them, they usually have an E36 M3 moment that is portrayed very vividly on their face. In both cases, neither driver even blinked, despite direct eye contact.

Given the state of the economy, it made me wonder if these people have car payments that they are trying to get out from under, cannot sell their small gas guzzler and are intentionally trying to have their car totaled. I tend to be a little suspicious/paranoid about people in general, so perhaps its just me. The lack of response to almost getting t-boned by an oncoming vehicle just struck me as odd.

Those things tend to happen in groups of three, so watch out.

I have only noticed the usual lack of attention while driving with my local herd.

Yep, I've noticed similar lack of response/attention scary how poorly people drive sometimes. The worst is when you see people acting the same way in stores. Take any store that has grocery carts and you'll see similar BS from the operators.

I've thought a few times recently about maybe becoming a cab-driver or a pizza delivery person just to help with the bills while I go back to school. With the way people are driving I think there would be some dead people on the roads, cause I'd have figured a way to mount a chain gun to my car!

How about a person going straight in a left turn only land cutting off the people in the middle lane trying to turn left, all after exiting the highway just to get back on the highway traveling in the same direction

JoshC wrote: ...unusual or erratic driving behaviors lately?

Pretty much every single day for the last 30 years...

There were a LOT more crashes during this year's snow then any other and I couldn't help but notice that nearly every single totaled car was brand spanking new...

stuart in mn wrote:

JoshC wrote: ...unusual or erratic driving behaviors lately?

Pretty much every single day for the last 30 years...

Yup... although 20 years in my case...

Going straight through a left-only turn lane? Hell... that's been a common occurance for years here in New Jersey...

I've noticed a huge increase of people running red lights in the last 6 months or so. That I attribute to people becoming increasingly lazy, assholish (yeah, I made that word up), and generally E36 M3ty drivers.

fiat22turbo wrote: Yep, I've noticed similar lack of response/attention scary how poorly people drive sometimes. The worst is when you see people acting the same way in stores. Take any store that has grocery carts and you'll see similar BS from the operators.

The grocery cart thing has gotten so bad around here that I no longer avoid them unless one (or both) of my kids is in the cart. You should see the looks you get when you just bang into one of them.

stuart in mn wrote:

JoshC wrote: ...unusual or erratic driving behaviors lately?

Pretty much every single day for the last 30 years...

Same here, only more like 34 years.

Last night, I was driving home from State College. On 322 East, there was quite a bit of snow coming down, but it was easily manageable - that is to say, visibility was still quite good. Some shiny happy person in an SUV of sorts drives past me in the left lane and then decides they want to be in the right lane (which I was in). They just started driving into my lane (with me next to them) and nearly clipped my front-left wheel. A good blast of the horn set them straight though.

People in western PA know how to handle snow - that I will stand by. This was a lazy, not checking your mirrors occurrence that nearly caused an accident in the snow.

I should have mentioned that I'm in SC and we rarely get snow. I just thought it was unusual given that typically when people pull out in front of me due to carelessness, their eyes usually get extremely large and sometimes they even mouth "sorry". In both these instances it was almost as though they were disappointed that I didn't hit them. I usually try to give these idiots the stink eye, but in this case all I got back was a blank, emotionless stare. Also, both were women, which in my experience usually magnifies the "oh e36 m3" look.

I have only noticed with snow covered roads people in ithaca being extra sloppy with the snow as an exscuse

Well, looks like today 1/20 we will get to see SC drivers' snow inexperience once again. I'm glad it's suposed to melt quickly.

I was in Rockford, IL last week where there was quite a bit of snow and actually had no problems. The interesting differences between there are SC are that they (obviously) are prepared for winter weather (snow plows, salt, etc.), the roads are all essentially straight and there are very few hills.

It is always funny when we have vendors/customers visit our facility from up North when bad weather is predicted. Day 1 (before snow/ice arrives), we get made fun of b/c we don't know how to drive in the snow and everyone is raiding the local supermarket. Day 2 (snow/ice arrives), they show up at least an hour late b/c the roads are so bad.

Unusual driving for me would be everyone staying in their lane, using their indicators and mirrors (including an extra peek down from the Giant SUV crowd so they won't change lanes into me), braking from a proper distance and only when necessary, and moving at a decent speed.

Erratic driving is always a given.

I do about 100 miles of in town driving daily delivering pizza. You see all kinds. I do have a special gripe with bad mergers and lane change idiots.

World Peace and ending hunger are lofty ideals..but I would settle for people using their turn indicators properly!

Bruce